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Asthma medicine doping

You may know that various athletes use asthma medicines, and there is a problem with many medicines prescribed for athletes in that doctors work with athletes to diagnose issues that aren't there, and that these medicines can thus be used to enhance performance. For me the question was: if an athlete doesn't have asthma, with the doctor working with him to analyse him as having asthma even if he doesn't have it, will that result in a noticeable increase in performance?

I don't have asthma but a relative does, and so long ago already I thought about doing a test with an asthma inhaler before a bike ride to see how it would affect me and thus see how this could possibly enhance performance of athletes. A few days ago I finally did that...

Test 1: 2021-8-5: Due to the very varying weather conditions in NL this year it is hard to compare rides and thus a possible increase in performance (I don't have a power meter on my bike, otherwise I could test that more easily, note that varying degrees of fitness which increases with more riding and esp., with fast riding, and that you are tired some days, or simply have an off day, also needs to be taken into account), but my first test with not much wind and ca. 20 degrees already gave a clear indication: I inhaled the medicine, rode home, and within my relative's city cycled pretty fast, first 'uphill' on a very long/high bridge where I rode effortlessly faster than I would normally do, then to keep up with a scooter including accelerating from stopped at traffic lights. The influence was clear: I didn't feel my lungs at all whereas normally I'd feel something at such speeds. Outside the city I took it easy for a short while then then continued at a fairly high speed (with my touring bike) and again I felt only my muscles. I still need to do a test starting from my home on a hot day as then I'd be more inclined to ride as fast as possible and in such cases I could be gasping for air at the end of a fast ride. I will try to test this if there is another hot day this summer. From this 1st test it looks as if using asthma medicine will help an athlete who doesn't have asthma to train harder, and to ride harder in competition, such as a time trial. I'm not sure how long the effect of this inhaler lasts but it will be enough for for example a time trial in cycling.

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